Jackson death won't affect Beatles RB

Harmonix has said that Michael Jackson's death will not affect the release of The Beatles: Rock Band.

Furthermore, the developer told IGN there is no chance the track list will be compromised.

Michael Jackson owned the bulk of The Beatles catalogue. He acquired the rights to around 267 songs when he bought publisher ATV Songs in 1985 for USD 47.5m, according to Reuters. Jackson famously outbid Paul McCartney to do so.

The late, great singer merged ATV with Sony Music 10 years later, granting him 50 per cent of the new label, which is now worth around USD 1 billion.

But what the Jackson Estate owns of that today is unknown, as the recently-deceased singer used his stake as well as copyrights to his own songs to secure massive bank loans amounting to USD 270m in 2002.

He needed the money to pay off astronomical debts, which the Wall Street Journal reported last month to be as high as USD 500m.

But, back on topic: The Beatles: Rock Band is due out on 9th September for PS3, Wii and Xbox 360. Our gamepages below will tell you more.